How many calories should I eat to lose weight?
There is no single number that works for every woman. Your calories for weight loss depend on your age, height, weight and how much you move. The good news: you can work it out in a minute, and the answer is usually more food than you expect.
Step 1: how many calories your body uses
First you need your maintenance calories: how much you burn in a normal day. The most widely used estimate is the Mifflin-St Jeor equation. For women it is: 10 × weight in kg + 6.25 × height in cm − 5 × age − 161. That gives your resting energy, which you then multiply by your activity level: about 1.2 if you sit most of the day, 1.375 if you are lightly active, and 1.55 if you exercise most days.
Example: a 40-year-old woman who is 165 cm tall, weighs 80 kg and is lightly active burns about 1,470 calories at rest and roughly 2,020 calories a day in total.
Step 2: a small, steady deficit
To lose weight, eat about 500 calories a day less than your maintenance. For the woman above that is roughly 1,500 calories a day. A deficit like this usually means losing around 0.5 to 1 kg (1 to 2 lb) a week, the pace the NHS and the US National Institutes of Health describe as safe and sustainable.
Bigger is not better. As a general rule, women should not go below 1,200 calories a day without medical supervision. Very low calorie diets cause tiredness, muscle loss and a higher risk of gallstones, and the weight tends to come back.
Step 3: make the calories filling
Two nutrients do most of the work of keeping you full: protein and fibre. Build every meal around a protein (chicken, fish, eggs, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, beans or lentils), fill half the plate with vegetables, and keep a quarter for bread, potatoes, rice or pasta.
Measure oil with a spoon: one tablespoon has about 120 calories. Drinks count too; a glass of juice has about as many calories as a can of soda. With these habits, four real meals a day fit comfortably into 1,400 to 1,600 calories.
Use the free calorie calculator →
Step 4: check and adjust
Weigh yourself once a week, on the same day and at the same time. Water can make your weight jump by a kilo from one day to the next, so look at the trend over three or four weeks. If nothing changes in that time, take off another 100 to 150 calories a day, or add a daily walk.
What 1,475 calories looks like
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Total for the day1,475 kcal · 102 g protein
This day is from the free 7-day meal plan. Four real meals, pasta for dinner, and no snacking in between.
FAQ
Is 1,200 calories enough to lose weight?
For many women it is more of a deficit than they need. Most lose weight steadily on 1,300 to 1,600 calories, which is easier to stick to and makes it easier to get enough protein.
Should I eat back the calories I burn exercising?
Not all of them. Fitness trackers often overestimate calories burned. Use your activity level in the calculator instead, and adjust after a few weeks based on your weight trend.
Why am I not losing weight on a deficit?
Usually because the deficit is smaller than it looks: oil, drinks, snacks and weekends add up. Weigh foods for a week to check, and give it three to four weeks before you judge, because water can hide fat loss.
Get your number
Use the free calorie calculator Free 7-day meal plan The full 28-day plan
Sources
- Mifflin MD et al. A new predictive equation for resting energy expenditure, Am J Clin Nutr 1990
- NHS: Lose weight, 12 week plan
- NIH NIDDK: Gallstones and rapid weight loss
General information for healthy adults, not medical advice. If you are pregnant, breastfeeding, have an eating disorder or a medical condition, talk to your doctor first.